1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and, more particularly, to a refrigerator, which has a shaved ice discharger to discharge shaved ice produced in the refrigerator to the outside.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator generates cold air through a cooling cycle within the refrigerator, so that various foods can be stored in a refrigerated state or a frozen state by means of the cold air therein. In particular, a large refrigerator is equipped with an automatic icemaker to automatically produce ice cubes.
Recently, in order to prepare shaved ice or iced beverages using shaved ice, a refrigerator has been developed which includes a shaved-ice maker to produce the shaved ice by pulverizing the ice cubes supplied from the automatic icemaker, and a shaved ice discharger to discharge the shaved ice produced in the shaved-ice maker to an outside of the refrigerator, so that the shaved ice produced in the refrigerator by the shaved-ice maker can be supplied to the outside thereof.
The shaved ice discharger includes a damper to open/close a shaved ice discharge port provided in a freezing compartment door, and a discharge lever hinged to the freezing compartment door such that the discharge lever is rotated when external force is applied thereto, and operates the damper to open the shaved ice discharge port.
However, since such a conventional refrigerator requires a considerable time for producing the shaved ice by pulverizing the shaved ice through the shaved-ice maker, there is an inconvenience in that a user of the refrigerator must continuously press the discharge lever for an extended period of time.